This Machine Kills
by This Machine Kills
Latest episode
483. How Big Tech Captured Classrooms (ft. Jessica Winter)
483. How Big Tech Captured Classrooms (ft. Jessica Winter)
About this podcast
A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies
Listen anywhere that fine podcasts are distributed. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to get premium episodes every week.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 500 episodes
- 483. How Big Tech Captured Classrooms (ft. Jessica Winter) · 1 h 54 minWe are joined by Jessica Winter – writer at The New Yorker covering edtech and education policy — for a wide-ranging conversation about how school systems have become totally…
- Patreon Preview – 482. Be the Investment Risk You Want to See in the World · 8 minJumping off the downturn in the Australian data centre market, we talk about how susceptible this industry is to investment risk from even localized forms of community resistance…
- 481. The Data of Empire (ft. Roopika Risam) · 1 h 25 minWe chat with Roopika Risam — author of Data Empire: How Information Shaped Human History — about the very long history of data and the many ways that empires have used data to…
- Patreon Preview – 480. We Need to Talk About the Forces of Production · 8 minWe discuss and riff on the People’s AI Assembly, organized by AI Now Institute and More Perfect Union, which just happened in New York City. ••• The People's AI Assembly…
- 479. Trust Doesn’t Care About Your Feelings (ft. Kate Kaye) · 1 h 11 minJathan chats with journalist Kate Kaye about her new podcast series, Trust Control, all about the history and future of trying to measure trust. We get into different ways of…
- Patreon Preview – 478. Keep Honking, I’m Watching Microdramas While Weaving Through Traffic · 5 minWe discuss a deep dive into the ascendency of microdramas – the short-form video series that are already bigger than the conventional film industry in China and are quickly…
- 477. Amerikkka Intelligence · 1 h 17 minWe get into the new decree from Trump that “artificial intelligence” is now called “super intelligence” – it sounds less fake and more powerful — and the broader currents of tech…
- Patreon Preview – 476. Can You Believe What Leftists Think About AI · 8 minWe learn all about how leftists are against any new regulations for AI. It’s the unbelievable return of horseshoe theory as we discuss the curious new discourse cycle being…
- 475. Never Let a Computer Tell Me Shit · 1 h 23 minWe jump off from the OpenAI - Hugging Face hacking incident as a way to talk about the misleading, cynical, and hysterical ways we talk about AI and the stranglehold that…
- Patreon Preview – 474. Gym, Tan, Leverage · 7 minWe bring together two different stories about the tech sector and speculative real estate booms. First, how Netflix promises to turn the Jersey Shore into “Hollywood East”…
- 473. Tech Workers of the World, Unite (ft. JS Tan, Clarissa Redwine) · 1 h 28 min[We had technical difficulties and had to use a backup recording, sorry!] We chat with JS Tan and Clarissa Redwin — both veteran tech workers and labor organizers — about their…
- Premium – 472. Australia’s AI Pitch Deck · 8 minWe turn our sights down under by taking a closer look at the new all-of-government strategy for AI in Australia’s Interests. Australia has plotted out a bold, progressive vision…
- 471. Breaking the Leviathan · 1 h 47 minWe take a deep dive into New York’s police-surveillance infrastructure, a sprawling leviathan that Mayor Zohran Mamdani was outspoken against during his campaign, but has now…
- Patreon Preview – 470. Choking on Data Exhaust · 8 minWe chat about Ed’s engagement with communities pushing back against data center development in Tulsa, plus some major reporting showing the sheer scale of fossil-fuelled data…
- 469. The Maniacs are Running the Asylum (ft. Nikhil Suresh) · 1 h 39 minWe’re joined by Nik Suresh, director of Hermit Tech and excellent blogger on the software industry. You might know Nik for an incredible essay he wrote a couple years ago about…
- Patreon Preview – 468. Vibes Make the World Go Round · 10 minFirst we get into a very circular (the strongest shape in nature) deal between Nvidia, OpenAI, and Softbank to finance a $250 billion 10-gigawatt data center complex, powered by…
- 467. Industrial Policy by Other Means (ft. Matt Haugen, Jesse Goldstein) · 1 h 25 minWe chat with Matt Haugen and Jesse Goldstein from the Climate + Community Institute about a new report they co-authored laying out how the US is engaging in industrial policy for…
- Patreon Preview – 466. I’m Evil as Shit · 10 minWe first open a door by talking about the great new ‘right to repair’ ruling from the FTC, which is the result of a long fight against rentier monopolies and digital enclosure…
- 465. Malcolm X1 Technologies · 1 h 25 minWe chat all about the growing market for humanoid robots. What are the financial incentives and social ideologies driving the creation of technologies designed to directly mimic…
- Patreon Preview – 464. Pep Rally · 7 minMiracle cures! Get your miracle cures! What the hell are peptides? Why is this class of black/gray market drugs on everyone’s lips and being injected into everybody’s veins?…
- 463. The Abuse is the Point (ft. Ben Somers) · 1 h 33 min(Sorry we’re a little late; blame producer pneumonia) We open the nightmare world folder and go through a series of stories about technology, surveillance, and policing. Cops…
- Patreon Preview – 462. Somebody’s Really Gotta Do Something · 7 minIf every billionaire is a policy failure, then the world’s first trillionaire is a far more serious omen of collapse. We spend this episode talking about Muskism, reflecting on…
- 461. The Book of Ludd · 1 h 18 min“Welcome to the Church of Ludd, it’s nice to see you join our congregation. Please pick up a pamphlet as you walk in, which explains how to set up your religious exemption from…
- Patreon Preview – 460. Mr. Worldspirit · 6 minIt’s a news roundup! First, in a duo of stories designed to make Ed jealous, Australia has seized 20 million illegal vapes at the border since January 2024, while the Australian…
- 459. One Border After Another (ft. Gaby Del Valle) · 1 h 12 minWe chat with Gaby Del Valle—policy reporter at the Verge—about her excursion to the Border Security Expo, the new hardware and software being sold to fight the endless battle at…
- Patreon Preview – 458. Seduced by the Slop Tsunami · 5 minWe chat about how so many people keep getting seduced into thinking chatbots are conscious, or just keep hedging their bets in some kind of Cyber-Pascal’s Wage, or just keep…
- 457. DC3: The Terraforming · 1 h 25 minWe’re going in for a threepeat – it’s Data Centers 3, as we continue with our analysis of the data center industry, the opposition to these hyperscale projects, and the real…
- Patreon Preview – 456. Do Not Question Project Cannoli · 7 minWe go in for a second helping on analysing the opposition to data centers. After further deconstructing the arguments against opposition, we do what none of them actually do: pay…
- 455. The Anti-Anti-Anti-Data-Centers Social Club · 1 h 29 minWe deconstruct the confused arguments – from the left – against moratoriums for data centres. These positions set up a false dichotomy between either pausing or governing…
- Patreon Preview – 454. The Shocks Keep Coming · 9 minWe dig into two shocks in international political economy that are each on their way to being complex, interrelated crises. First, the unsustainable system of export-led…
- 453. Super “Intelligent” Industrial Policy · 1 h 40 minWe do a deep dive into OpenAI’s new report “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First” and pick apart their extensive set of proposals for building…
- Patreon Preview – 452. Lady Luck is the World Spirit · 7 minWe talk about a new innovation in focus groups and public polling called “silicon sampling” — or a new way that models which claim to represent the world are actually engines…
- 451. Do Not Become Addicted to Electrons (ft. Tim Sahay, Kate Mackenzie) · 1 h 18 minWe chat with Tim Sahay and Kate Mackenzie — authors of the indispensable newsletter The Polycrisis and hosts of the new podcast Electric World Order — to get into the energy…
- Patreon Preview – 450. Sorry Grandma, Computer Says Die · 6 minWe chat about new strides in Australian innovation. What if you had a computer quiz that decided if your grandma deserved the care needed to have a good life? What if you had a…
- 449. Efficiently Drowning in Work · 1 h 17 minTMK thought validated yet again! We talk about two big studies into the effects of AI on workloads, which show with in-depth empirical detail how AI intensifies and expands…
- Patreon Preview – 448. Dubai’s Golden Dome Crumbles · 6 minWe discuss the breathless article in Jeff Bezo’s Washington Post about how Claude’s integration into the Palantir Maven Smart System has been used for rapid target generation and…
- TMK Live Show in San Francisco - March 19th · 1 minFolks, we are doing a TMK live show in San Francisco! Come join Jathan and Ed, along with our friends, Wendy Liu and Jimmy Wu, for a fun night of left-wing tech criticism as we…
- 447. The Shinji Problem · 1 h 30 minWe get into the love/hate triangle between Anthropic, OpenAI, and the Pentagon and discuss the details of these contracts for AI weapon and surveillance systems, what’s actually…
- Patreon Preview – 446. Vibe Decoder (ft. Wendy Liu, Jimmy Wu) · 7 minAnd we’re back with TMK-as-usual! We are joined by Wendy Liu and Jimmy Wu from the Bay Area Current — a new leftist publication writing about the working class in San Francisco…
- 445. What’s Democracy Got to Do With AI? (ft. Bruce Schneier) · 1 h 6 minWe chat with Bruce Schneier — renowned security technologist and, most recently, co-author of Rewiring Democracy — to discuss the relationship between technology and democracy…
- Patreon Preview – 444. The Stories We Tell · 7 minWe chat about our week as Guests of Honor at Capricon, a science fiction convention in Chicago, and all the great panels and chats we had about luddism, science fiction, politics…
- 443. Behold the Big Beautiful AI State (ft. Brian Chen) · 1 h 12 minWe’re joined by Brian Chen — policy director at Data & Society — to discuss his new report on the Trump administration’s industrial policy for building The Big AI State. We lay…
- Patreon Preview – 442. The Empire of Blood and Oil · 8 minWe chat about the Karp x Fink interview at Davos, the humiliation ritual of making Adam Tooze sit on a panel about how batteries are a Chinese threat to America, how an…
- 441. The Fight Over AI Use in Mental Healthcare (ft. Ciara Keegan, Ilana Marcucci-Morris) · 1 h 9 minWe chat with Ciara Keegan and Ilana Marcucci-Morris from the National Union of Healthcare Workers about their ongoing contract dispute with Kaiser Permamente over the use and…
- Patreon Preview – 440. TMK x CES: Return to Hell · 10 minEd returns from his annual trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. We learn about the hottest new trends and devices hitting the market. Big this year: chatbot wrappers…
- 439. Do Socialists Dream of Electric Institutions, Part 2 (ft. Aaron Benanav) · 1 h 43 minWe’re joined yet again by Aaron Benanav to chat about his essays Beyond Capitalism. In this episode we discuss what it means to lay out concrete models for an alternative…
- Patreon Preview – 438. Bloodsport for Billionaires · 8 minWe offer projections for the year to come in tech. What might happen with our big beautiful bubble of overinflated assets, overinvested infrastructure, and overhyped technology?…
- 437. Do Socialists Dream of Electric Institutions, Part 1 (ft. Aaron Benanav) · 1 h 24 minWe’re joined by Aaron Benanav to get into his magisterial essays laying out a vision of society beyond capitalism. In part 1 of our conversation, we lay out his incisive analysis…
- Patreon Preview – 436. Panic! Attack the User · 9 minWe go through a number of moral panics about technology — vaping in schools,porn consumption online, social media use by teens — that are boiling over right now. In each of these…
- 435. Schoolwork Will Set You Free · 1 h 26 minAfter discussing the Council of Neo-Nicaea — but like, what if Jesus was an AI? — we then discuss an incredibly harrowing story of abusive practices at Alpha School, charter…
